News & Events

Shenango students invited to Penn State Beaver to see "Blood at the Root"

2/13/2014 —

Penn State Shenango students are invited to the Penn State Beaver campus at 4 p.m. on Sat., March 1 to see “Blood at the Root” a bold new play by rising star Dominique Morisseau (Detroit ’67, Sunset Baby) and directed by Steve Broadnax, the head of Penn State’s Graduate Acting program at Penn State University Park campus. The company will perform at several campuses throughout the Penn State system this spring, followed by an international tour in the summer.

The work, commissioned by the School of Theatre, is inspired by the “Jena Six,” a group of young black men in Jena, Louisiana, who were charged with attempted murder after assaulting a white student at their high school in 2007. Previous assaults on black students had gone largely unpunished, and the conviction and sentencing of the Jena Six serve as a strong reminder of racial injustice in the United States. “Blood at the Root” follows six high school students at fictional Cedar High as they learn to look past their own experiences in order to see things from a different perspective.

The message proved universal when the company premiered the new play in a successful three-week tour of South Africa. “The response was electric all across the country,” says company member Tyler Reilly. “Everywhere we went, people told us how wonderful it was that we were doing this show in their town. They thought we had written the play specifically for them, with their specific issues in mind.”

The overwhelming response that “Blood at the Root” has had at home and abroad led to the rare opportunity of being invited back to the historic Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa as a part of their 2014 season for the month of June. Continuing the mission of bringing this work to the world, the company is well on their way to making a European tour, which includes the world famous Edinburg Festival Fringe in Scotland, a reality in August.

Their main stage premiere at the Downtown Theatre in State College runs March 28-April 5. More information about ticket reservations may be found on the School of Theatre's website, theatre.psu.edu.

Despite its decidedly American setting, the play’s specificity resonated with international audiences who saw themselves, their culture and their issues in the piece. Weaving music, dance and poetry to stunning effect, “Blood at the Root” has proven in the U.S. and abroad that this story is not only one that needs to be told, it is one that needs to be seen.

More information about “Blood at the Root” can be found at their Facebook page facebook.com/BloodAtTheRoot.

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